CZ-USA CZ 527 American Bolt .300 Black (7.62x35mm) - Blue/Black, 16.5" Barrel, 5+1 Rounds, Synthetic, Black Synthetic Stock

First, I'm a CZ junky. I started my CZ collection 30 years ago when I was a Czech linguist for the Army, and one of my Czech instructors to us shooting, and I shot my first CZ handgun. Since then, I've added everything from a German occupation CZ27, to a Evo, and a P01. Then I decided to try a 527 in 300BLK. Out of the box, it suffered severe light strikes, and the bolt was horrible. A quick google showed me that this was a huge problem with this model. Quick call to CZ and an RMA....and gun was shipped off for repair. Not a big deal, I have hundreds of guns, not my first time getting something with a flaw and having it repaired. After several weeks...I got it back, and the work order said the bolt had been replaced. And the problem remained........constant light strikes and the bolt took two hands to close, with or without a magazine, in addition, it was now keyholing as well. One tip I found was to add arc to the bolt extractor band, I did that, and now amazingly enough, the bolt was almost functional. To the point I felt it might actually break in and become nice. Alas, no solution for the light strikes, and because of the ammo shortage, no way to narrow down the keyholing. Back off to CZ. CZ keeps the gun for weeks, finally emails me..."it fails the accuracy standard so we will replace it". Ok, well, by this time the 300BLK was discontinued (I wonder why). They offered me a 527 Varmint Special Suppressor ready in 6.5 Grendel. I waited months. "we're backordered and waiting on new guns from the factory". Finally, this week, I got the call my gun was at my FFL. I picked it, took it home. In the shop I had just glanced at it while the FFL verified serial numbers. Once home, I took it completely out of the plastic. NO! The entire forearm was cracked all the way down and seperating. I couldn't believe it. I told CZ I was done, take the gun back and refund me. Now I have to ship it back under yet another RMA, and god knows how long it will take to get the refund. Not only that, but they really didn't even seem to give a shit, and instead of apologizing, they made a lame excuse that this stock somehow cracked because it was mishandled in shipment. Really? Is your gun so poorly made that it can crack while encased in form fitting foam, and packed in a box...which btw, had no signs of damage? CZ was my favorite gun company. I will now likely not buy another one, ever.

As always great service from Buds.This little rifle is great. As I get older I appreciate light weight and handy size. With the 527 You cant go wrong.

The rifle arrived at the dealer in good condition. When unpacking it and doing the initial look over, I noticed that the barrel was touching on the right side of the stock barrel channel, leaving a 1/8" gap on the left side. After cleaning off the preservative and lubricants from the rifle's interior/exterior, I re-lubed the bolt and all contact points, and performed a basic function check on bolt, trigger/set trigger, safety, and magazine. All worked as advertised, but the bolt had a fair amount of binding when trying to operate the bolt with any speed. I then tried to align the barrel in the fore end by loosening the action screws and moving the action, then re-tightening the screws. It worked to some extent, but there was still a substantial gap on the left side of the barrel channel, and a smaller one on the right, measuring 1/32d of an inch. I found that tightening the front action screw firmly bound the magazine to the point that it would not release. When I backed it off, it worked fine. I then proceeded to test the trigger pull weights using a Lyman gauge. The normal trigger broke at an average of 2 pounds, 10 ounces. This was with ten pulls. The set trigger broke at 1 pound, three ounces, same number of pulls. There was a bit of creep on the normal trigger pull, but none on the set trigger. I proceeded to mount the scope. CZ provided 1" rings, but I was using a Nightforce SHV 3x-10x/42 with a 30mm tube, so used some Warne rings. When boresighting the scope, it required almost 18 clicks of left windage to center, making me wonder about the concentricity of the receiver/barrel axes. After mounting the scope and bore sighting, I loaded some subsonic and supersonics loads, and they all shot extremely well. MOA for the supers using 125 gr Nosler Accubonds at 100 yards, and the same for the subs at 50. This is a very accurate rifle. Two things continue to be a bother. One is the magazine. It is a pain to load, and when using non spitzer, or non polymer pointed bullets, doesn't feed well, as the follower allows the bullet to dive and catch on the feed ramp. The second bother is the bolt binding. Even after working the bolt a couple of hundred times, it still has a tendency to bind when operating it from the shoulder in a rapid fashion, as one would for a quick followup shot. In this rifle it is minimally acceptable, but if this were a dangerous game rifle it would be totally unacceptable. If I had to spend the money again, I would likely try a Remington Model 7 variant, or possibly a Remington 700.

Ordered on a Friday afternoon and it arrived Monday! The finish is perfect and the synthetic stock seems solid, with a pleasant tactile feel. First trip to the 100 yard range with two kinds of factory ammo had 1 1/2" to 2" groups. Tried a variety of reloads the next day. 155 and 168 Sierra boat tails easily gave 3/8" to 9/16" groups. I think that's very good for a light weight carbine. The accuracy seems minimally affected as the barrel heats and the 300 Blk takes quite a few rounds to heat it up anyway. The bolt was sticky at first but a clean, lube and some cycling smoothed it out nicely. The magazine was a bit hard to load at first, but seems ok after some use. This rifle has a great trigger. It's very light and crisp and even better using the set position. I have a borescope. This rifles has a very smooth bore without any sharp edges. The throat is well done and plenty long. At 90 rounds now there is no build up of copper, just a light haze in a few areas that would clean up easily. I bought this rifle for fun, steel and plinking. It ejects the brass close by so it's easy to find. A good thing considering the cost of 300 Blk brass. I'm totally satisfied with the rifle. It's so light and easy to handle, and accurate, too!